Breathless Mahoney: Thanks for calling. I was beginning to wonder what a girl had to do to get arrested.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

"rotting from within from unexpiated sins"

This seems to me to be just as applicable to the Penn State horror as to the purported topic, though Pierce and others have written eloquently on that subject as well.

I have ordered Greenwald's book, as I've always been drawn to the theory that it was a huge, honking FUBAR to pardon Nixon and that we've been paying for it, in spades, ever since.

Part of me wants to feel bad for the kids at Penn State who are acting so badly now as they circle the wagons around their beloved football program and its iconic figurehead. After all, they are just kids, and it's in their developmental structure to be fiercely tribal in their loyalty. But it also seems like this is a teachable moment that SOMEONE with responsibility at Penn State ought to take advantage of, fergawdsake. They are a University, right? Firing the president and Paterno most definitely was not enough. Someone from the Board of Trustees, or perhaps the new interim president, should take a ballsy stand and inform these kids about what the proper behavior at this point in time should be, and it isn't a shallow display of piety while continuing the football program.

I suspect that there are reasons that the powers-that-be at Penn St. are not following my armchair quarterback's advice. I suspect that it might have something to do with the fact that those people have a very clear-eyed view of what is in store for them, and that to provide the kind of leadership as I have suggested now would not only highlight how lacking that leadership has been up to now, but also would be a rather abrupt wake-up call to students and their paying parents as to how rapidly and how far the value of their diplomas are likely to plummet.